In a matter like this he would wish to adapt his words and his manner to the moods and disposition of the lady, and he could not do this in a letter.

When he wooed a woman, he must see her and speak to her.

To any clandestine approach, any whispered conversation beneath her window, he would give no thought.

Having been asked by the master of the house not to go there, he would not go; but he would see her, and tell his love.
And, more than that, he would win her.
That morning, while waiting for the time to approach when it would be proper for him to go to Midbranch, he had been reading in a bound volume of an old English magazine, which was one of the five books the cottage possessed, an account of a battle which had interested him very much.
The commander of one army had massed his forces along and below the crest of a line of low hills, the extreme right of his line being occupied by a strong force of cavalry.

The army opposed to him was much stronger than his own, and it was not long before the battle began to go very much against him.